About:blank ...Help!

I

igora

Registered User
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Hi,

I am hoping some one can help me out. It seems I have acquired a spyware/hijacker on my computer. The homepage keeps reverting to about:blank. I have spent hours trying to get rid of it to no avail. I have downloaded all sorts of removal tools and nothing seems to work. Has anybody come across this before?

Would appreciate any info.

Cari
 
I presume that you're using Internet Explorer? Could you maybe try [broken link removed] (at least temporarily) to see if the problem is browser specific? Have any of the virus checkers or spyware tools found anything suspect on your PC? Anything useful among ?
 
Thank You Clubman and Extopia,

I have used Several checkers, McAfee, Cool WebShredder, Spywareblaster and adware etc.. They are telling me there are suspect files on my PC.. each one is giving me different scan results. I had Zone alarm, Reg cleaner, Spyware cleaner and Tweak on the pc before this. Part of the problem are pop ups and pages imitating MSN. I am now at the stage where I am not sure what sites are authentic and which are not. I have already purchased two tools this morning.
 
What happened when suspect files were reported? Did the tools not clean them out? Did the tools' websites not have any downloadable tools specific to the parasites in question (sometimes the tools themselves can't fix certain problems and you need to download a specific tool to do this)? You really shouldn't need to purchase any commercial tools to sort this problem out - there are more than enough free virus/spyware checkers/cleaners available already. Have you tried the just in case it sorts the problem?
 
Hey, that sounds nasty. I'm glad I use a macintosh!

If I was having this kind of problem I'd consider a complete system restore.

Best of luck whatever you do.
 
Chances are editing the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\{Run,RunOnce,RunOnceEx} key contents in the registry will help get rid of this but I would only recommend this course of action to somebody who was au fait with the registry, the precautions to take before editing it and was aware of the dangers of hand editing it.
 
I have tried in vain to download the MS Spyware tool, but everytime I try to download it , IE shuts me down. To answer your question Clubman, when I cleaned the suspect files reported the problem did not go away.

I am not so sure if I am confident enough to carry out your last suggestion..might think about that one a bit!
Thanks a million
 
Hi Igora,

Have you read the clean pc key post? Have you tried "hijack this"? Try downloading microsoft antispyware using an uninfected machine and then installing it on your own machine.
ajapale
 
igora said:
I have tried in vain to download the MS Spyware tool, but everytime I try to download it , IE shuts me down.
Click to expand...

As long as you have parasites on your PC Internet Explorer is unlikely to work properly. Better to switch (even temporarily although I'd recommend permanently) to another browser. I'd recommend FireFox myself.
 
Install Firefox stop using IE forthwith

Then Download

Spybot search and destroy
Adaware (free version)
MS Anti Spyware
Javacool Spywareblaster

All in all about 20Mb. Install, Update and Run each one of those, clean up what you can with them

Reboot and run all of them again

Reboot and run all of them again , the PC should be a lot cleaner.

Now use their inoculation or immunisation functions to block the stuff as soon as it hits the browser.

In Future stay off Porn and Gambling (not Bookies but Casinos) and Warezz sites where much of this crud comes from ....and do not use Internet Explorer until the new version of windows comes out late next year.
 
Hi,

From reading your thread i take it your running a few anti software packages..... bad idea, had mc afee and MS spyware running on same PC, they clashed, and i had to reformat drive on a 3 month old machine so might be something to think about.
 
Ok what was happening was that when the PC was switched on it booted up to the desktop screen, after a few seconds powered itself down and restarted, this continued in a loop constantly rebooting when it came to the desktop. Was on the the tech. department where I bought the PC and the guy said that it is not recomended to run two anti virus software packages togeather as this can happen. Seemingly its a MS prob. (whats new!!)
I was running Mc Afee and the MS beta test antivirus software.
 
ah lad said:
I was running Mc Afee and the MS beta test antivirus software.
Click to expand...

I presume you mean McAfee anti-virus and MS beta anti-spyware? I run AVG anti-virusand MS beta anti-spyware with no problems. I also run a few other firewall, virus and spyware tools from time to time (sporadically and sometimes at the same time - e.g. to do a bulk scan/clean) with no problems. I wouldn't necessarily blame Microsoft/Windows in the absence of definitive evidence/proof.

The argument for running more than one virus and/or spyware scanner at the same time is that one may catch problems that the other does not because its database is not as up to date. On the other hand the more you run the more time your system spends scanning files and allocating resources to these tools rather than your main applications. Apart from specific clashes between such tools that may exist only run more than one virus or spyware scanner if you have a good reason to do so.
 
Just a small related point: I find that switching to Firefox after you have been infected by spyware is not enough. The spyware will have already blocked access to the various antispyware (and antivirus sites) and switching to another browser will not on its own unblock the site. If you run "hijack-this" you can sometimes see how the spyware has done this.

ajapale
 
Yeah was running McAfeeanti-virus and Msbeta anti-spyware, your on the ball clubman, sorry about not specifing that.
 
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